Orpheus VII
by N. Kage
Summary: The Warhawks First Company is deployed to defend an Imperial World against the Devourer of Worlds.
1. Poor landings

This will be a more detailed and longer work, so bear with me if chapters take longer to be up. I claim no ownership to any Games-Workshop stuff mentioned here. N Kage

"This, Sergeants, is the world of Orpheus VII.' Captain Mepesto paused a moment, gesturing to the holographic map on the chart-desk. 'The Council has decided it is in the Chapters best interest to help the Imperial forces defend it from the Tyranid Hive Fleet, designated "Giganteus". You will each receive more detailed briefings. Chaplain Kylan is going to be leading the Company in prayer at 1530 and I suggest you all be there. Dismissed."

Erasmus picked up a data-slate and walked back to his squad-bay. It would be expected of him to individually brief his squad and get them ready for the battle to come. His hearts filled with revulsion at the thought of the Tyranids. For his entire life, Chaplains had preached how the alien deserved nothing but hatred and death. He banished the thoughts from his mind; this was one of the first assignments were he would be fighting alongside Captain Mepesto. Reaching the squad-bay, he shouted at his squad, "Form up!" With a crash of booted feet, Squad Erasmus snapped to attention. "We have been reassigned to the world of Orpheus VII, to fight the 'nid threat there. You will all receive additional information in your cells, and there is a Company prayer at 1530. That is all." Erasmus spun on his heel and returned to his quarters, to honor his weapons and armor before the coming battles. His bolt pistol had jammed in the last battle and it had almost cost him his life.

Mepesto had different things on his mind. The previous campaigns and missions had left the First Company battered and below-strength, at about one hundred and twenty Marines, instead of the standard one-hundred and fifty. One hundred and twenty Space Marines was a force to be reckoned with, but against even the smallest hive fleet, they would be hard-pressed to survive. Picking up one of the many data-slates that littered his quarters, he flipped through it, examining the numbers of Imperial Guard and PDF forces on the planet. Some seven thousand Guardsmen of the various regiments, and ten thousand PDF infantry-men, plus elements of the Twelfth Cadian Armored and Fifth Armageddon Steel Legion. Defenses were standard for an Imperial world of the size, orbital batteries and defense lasers mainly. It would be a hard battle. He picked up another slate, one that contained intelligence on this particular hive-fleet and scrolled through it.

Chaplain Kylan strode to the front of the Chapel, his Crozius Arcanum held high in his right hand, while in his left, he swung a censor, billowing orange clouds of incest trailing. His jet-black power armor had bone decorations around the greaves and helmet. He was an imposing sight. Few of the Company had ever scene his face, for he preferred to be thought of as a faceless icon of faith. As he reached the front of the Main Chapel, he about-turned and addressed the gathered First Company.

"KNELL!" his command rang out in the vast, pillared Chapel. Statues of the previous Chapels lined the entire Chapel, and they silently gave their approval of prayer to come. With a thunderous crash, the entire Company, including Mepesto, slammed to the floor in a kneel.

"Lord Emperor,' began Kylan, 'we go to war against a horrendous foe, the foul Tyranids. With your strength and guidance, we shall overcome this foe and your praises shall echo across the stars. Praise the Emperor."

"Praise the Emperor."

"When will my soul be like thrice-forged steel?" Kylan shouted, his Crozius raised high.

"In the heat of Battle!" The Company had stood and slammed their fists against the breasts of their armor.

"When does your duty to the Emperor end?" Kylan came again, his blood singing and his heart ablaze.

"In Deaths cold embrace!" The Company of Space Marines slammed their fists twice against their breasts, their voices causing flecks of dust to float down from the ceiling.

"What will be your reward?" Kylans voice was like thunder, able to cut through the sounds of battle and still be heard.

"The Knowledge I have done my duty!" Erasmus could feel his hearts beat faster, truly inspired by the Chaplains oratory.

"What will be your Battle-Cry?" Kylan was walking amongst the Marines, blessing each with holy water from Terra itself.

"Death comes for You!" The cry erupted from every mouth there, some Sergeants breaking discipline and thrusting their fists into the air.

Mepesto smiled to himself. It was a simple and standard prayer, but the way Kylan could say it, he could inspire even the most defeated soul.

The Thunderhawk screamed through the sky, cannons blazing a path through the swarms of gargoyles that threatened to tear it from the sky. Inside the armored hull of the Thunderhawk sat four squads of Warhawks Marines, sent to reinforce the garrison of the city Kenos. The rest of the Company was redeploying across the planet. The original plan was to get to the planet before the Tyranids, but the Hive Fleet got there first, and now, they had to fight their way in.

Veteran Sergeant Erasmus tried to remain calm, but the smacks of gargoyles hitting the sides of the Thunderhawk were unnerving him. Through the cloudy and ice covered port-hole, he could see hundreds, or thousands, of the flying Tyranids. Between the swarms of Tyranids, strange, organic seed-pods shot through the sky. Watching, he could see probably thousands of the pods. The sky itself was turning a bruised purple, and lightening flashed across the sky, even though there were no clouds.

Suddenly, the Thunderhawk was through the swarms, flying nape of the land. In the distance, the mighty defenses of the city of Kenos loomed. From around the city, orbital missiles defenses were firing, dozens of missiles streaking towards the sky. There were so many strange things coming from the sky, every missile hit a target. From further in the hills, massive defense lasers were firing, the unbearably bright flashes of the gigantic lasers causing Erasmus's auto senses to drop a filter in front of his eyes to keep him from being blinded.

With a rush, the Thunderhawk banked over the wall, dodging defense missiles that would have vaporized the relatively small gunship. Shuddering, the Thunderhawk touched down on a landing pad, steam hissing from broken pipes. Slapping the restraint release, Erasmus stood, drew his pistol and stormed out, his squad right behind him. Shrieking, a gargoyle that had latched onto the Thunderhawk swooped down at Erasmus, its symbiotic weapon firing. With a shriek, the fleshborer spit out its cone of fanged beetles. Erasmus stepped back and pumped a round into the gargoyle, blowing off its head. He looked down and could see a sheen of black beetles trying to chew through his blessed armor. He gestured to Gunner Morenas and the Marine sent small gouts of flame over the Sergeants armor, burning off the beetles.

Erasmus looked to the sky and was horrified by what he saw. The sky was purple-black now, billions of spores raining down twisting the very environment. Towards the direction the Thunderhawk had come, a massive black cloud was forming from the thousands of gargoyles. Now that he could see better, he could see the seed-pods were actually Mycetic spores, the foul drop-pod equivalent of the drop-pod. Watching one, he could see it strike into one of the missile silos. Almost instantly, the missile silo stopped firing, within two minutes, two other silos nearby stopped firing. The lack of fire from that location caused Mycetic spores to drift towards that location and a decent force of what looked like gaunt broods had formed.

"Lord Chaplain Kylan!' Erasmus shouted into the Thunderhawk, for Chaplain Kylan was leading this force, 'The Tyranids had taken the missile silos!"


	2. Gaunts and a sewer

Chaplain Kylan walked away, shouting orders to the other squads, pointing out positions on the wall for them to take up. Imperial Guardsmen ran past them, openly staring, until a Kylan turned his rictus-masked face towards them, and they ceased. Erasmus frantically called out again, "Lord Chaplain, we need to retake the missile silos and get them working again!"

Kylan had his back turned to the Veteran Sergeant and stated, "We will not be retaking the silos, Sergeant Erasmus. You will take position over the Main Gate." Kylan gestured at the massive adamantine gates.

"Lord Chaplain, we must get the silos working again!"

"Sergeant Erasmus, you forget your place."

"Lord Chaplain!"

"Erasmus, if I send my Marines out there to retake the silos, they will be surrounded and wiped out. I have made my decision and get to your damn battle-position!"

Erasmus saluted, fuming inside and hustled over with his squad to aide the Imperial Guard and PDF troopers in holding the gate.

A senior Guard officer, most likely a Colonel, if Kylan was reading his pips right, ran up to the Chaplain.

"Lord, we are most honored that you have come to our help. If you wish, we can discuss my men's disposition and the cities defenses."

Kylan turned and gazed into the Colonels eyes, the Chaplains hard eyes causing the man to squirm uncomfortably.

"Yes, I do wish." The Chaplain said simply.

Erasmus was angry. If they could have retaken the damn missile silos, they could have slowed the 'nid attack and given the bloody Guard more time to prepare. An inner voice told him that the Lord Chaplain was right but he dismissed the thought when the flocks of gargoyles wheeled and plunged down the length of the wall, their foul bio-plasma screaming and their fleshborers pumping out swarms of flesh eating beetles.

"MORENAS!' he shouted at his flame gunner, 'cover east!" The Space Marine ran down the wide column that was the top of the wall and sent gouts of holy promethium into the gargoyles, immolating dozens. Shrieking, the flying 'nids wheeled away to find easier kills.

Looking back out over the wall, towards the gathering Tyranid swarms, his hearts beat faster with dread. He could no longer make out individual organisms; all he could see was a mass of scuttling carapace, broken by the occasion bulk of a larger organism, most likely the so-called synapse creatures the tactical briefing told them to kill on sight. The swarms were still a good distance away, far enough away that the artillery mounted on the wall could not reach it.

Mepesto's landing was not so smooth. He had taken the bulk of the Company, eighty Marines, to defend the capitol, Kresa. Well, the PDF troopers manning the Hydra batteries on the walls were not alerted to the fact that Space Marines would be coming to aide them and had almost shot down one of the Thunderhawks. Mepesto had a word with the PDF commander, and the over-anxious troopers were transferred to the front wall.

The swarms of Tyranids had amassed much faster around Kresa and within an hour of landing, Mepesto's detachment was in the thick of the fighting, attacked by swarms of spineguants, hormaguants and termaguants. Behind the masses of gaunts, organisms classified as 'Carnifex' and 'Warrior' advanced, their unholy screams drowning out another, more sinister sound. That sound was burrowing.

Mepesto was in the thick of the fighting at the first wall where a heavily mutated Carnifex had almost taken down the wall. Over the semi-destroyed section, gaunts leapt over, engaging the brave defenders in close-range firefights that only the Space Marines really excelled at. Standard Issue Imperial Guard flak armor was no defense against the terrible bio-weapons that the gaunts had, some firing showers of worms that ate flesh from the inside out, or spines coated in poison that left men frothing, broken wrecks.

"For the Emperor!" Mepesto shouted as he and his command squad joined the firing line, his storm bolter pumping out dozens of shells. Every one of the bolts struck home, not a shell was wasted. Next to him, Gunner Hemitez firing his multi-melta into a group that had formed up behind a pile of shattered bodies, melting every one of the foul zenos into a pool of liquid goo. Inspired by the Warhawks Captain, Guardsmen fought with renewed vigor, their las-guns sounding pitiful against the shrieks and screams of the bio-weapons of the 'nids. A gaunt with large, scything talons jumped at Mepesto, hissing like a daemon. The Captain sidestepped and slashed his lighting claw across the 'nids torso, cutting the beast into smoking chunks.

A Leman Russ of the Twelfth Cadian revved behind the firing line, using its dozer blade to push a mound of debris from a demolished building against the partially destroyed wall, blocking the gaunt attack. Twice more, the Leman Russ pushed more debris against the wall. The mass of twisted adamantine and ferrocrete was shorter than the actually wall, but it still stopped the damn gaunts and that was all that mattered. Mepesto raised his lighting claw in a salute to the quick thinking tank commander.

"Captain Mepesto,' a voice in his vox-bead squawked over the din of inhuman screams and gunfire, 'This is Sergeant Greavous, we have warriors on the wall and need your assistance…" the end of the Sergeants transmission was cut short. Mepesto quickly bolted up the wall via a covered stairway and charged towards the south-wall, where Greavous had been deployed. Emperor help them all if the Warriors took the wall there.

Chaplain Kylan hurried over the Main Gate, a towering, thirty meter tall, solid adamantine construction, where Erasmus had summoned him on a matter critical to the defense of the city. Seeing the Chaplain, Erasmus pointed towards the missile silos that the Sergeant had been so adamant about retaking. At first, Kylan could not quite make out what he was seeing, but his auto senses increased magnification. He snarled at what he saw. Dozens of gaunts were pouring into the silos, like sand through an hour-glass.

"Colonel Jendrax,' he spoke into the vox-link, transmitting on the Imperial Guard frequency, 'do the missile silos connect into the city?"

Hissing, the vox was silent for a moment, then the Colonel's voice cut through, "Yes, Chaplain, they connect through a series of sewers. Why?"

"Colonel, send your storm troopers into the sewers and tell them to hold until reinforced, damn it!" without waiting for a reply, Kylan turned to Erasmus, a sight smile on his masked face.

"Erasmus, since you wanted to retake those silos, you can counter-attack through the sewers. GO!"


	3. Of Sewers and Tunnels

This chapter is going to be completely about the battle in the sewers. Deal with it. N. Kage.

Erasmus splashed through the dank sewer, his helmet display bathing everything in a green light. He had his bolt pistol and chainsword out, scanned everything in his sector. Behind and beside him, his squad was ready, combat knives mounted under their bolters, or side arms loose in their holsters. Somewhere in the labyrinth of ancient aqueducts and sewers they were in, lurked a swarm of Tyranids. Supposedly, about two-hundreds to their left, the Imperial Guard Storm Troopers were conducting their sweeps. Erasmus doubted it; the Storm Troopers were probably already dead.

A low hissing to the fore caused Erasmus to freeze in a firing position. Out of the darkness behind a large water pipe, a four-armed monstrosity leapt out, adamantine claws gleaming.

"Genestealers to the front!" shouted Erasmus, as he pumped shells at the foul zenos. The 'stealer dodged several of the bolts with inhuman swiftness, but two penetrated the carapace on its thorax and detonated, splattering the 'stealer to hell. Like a nightmare, the rest of the 'stealer brood attacked, all claws and fang-lined mouths. Erasmus killed two right away, with so many charging down the sewer, they could not dodge properly. One leapt right at Erasmus, rending claws flashing towards his armored head. Just before the 'stealer struck Erasmus, a bolt of plasma shrieked over Erasmus's shoulder and struck the zeno, immolating it in a flash of light. Brother Jorres stepped up next to the Sergeant.

"Looks like you have a bug problem, Sergeant," The Battle-Brother joked as he fired several more globs of plasma into the 'stealers, causing them to fall back for a moment.

"Kill them all, Brother," Erasmus responded, firing his bolt pistol at full-auto into the shadows were the 'stealers had fallen back. No a sound. "Be alert, Brothers, they could be in the walls."

The squad fanned out in a circle, with Jorres and Morenas in center, where their weapons could be deployed to aide anywhere. The only sound Erasmus could hear was his own breathing. A long minute passed, but the 'stealers still had no come. With a crack, the roof gave way over Brother Temetiz and a large shape dropped down, shredding the Battle Brother with massive claws and an inhuman shriek echoed in the close sewer. Erasmus spun and resigned himself to death at what he saw. Standing almost as tall as a Space Marine, armed with diamond-hard claws and talons, the Brood-lord of the 'stealer swarm would kill them all.

Captain Koyl of the Second Storm Trooper Company heard the inhuman shriek echo across the two-hundred and fifty meters that separated them from the Space Marines and it chilled him to the bone. They had not had contact with the Space Marines since they had entered the sewer, but Koyl could tell the Marines were in trouble. The hundreds of bolt reports had told him that.

"All squads,' he spoke into the integrated vox that every Storm Trooper had in his helmet, 'we're going to help out the Marines. Everyone double-time it to their last known location. Stay on yer toes and kill the 'nid bastards!" A half-dozen acknowledgments rasped in his ear. The Captain signaled his own squad with a pumping motion of his hand and they set off, running through side tunnels choked with unnatural purple moss. He drew his plasma-pistol and checked to make sure the flasks were in place properly and them, with a flourish, he drew his power sword, a gift from Colonel Banon, when he had saved the Colonels life.

He could hear dozens of bolt reports, the whoosh of a flame weapon and the shriek of a plasma gun. But, over all this, he could hear hissing and screaming. Rounding a bend, the lights mounted on his helmet and shoulder illuminated a fearsome scene.

A giant 'stealer or something was tearing open a Space Marine like his armor was paper and in one of the 'stealers hands, the zeno had two hearts, still beating. All around the squad of Marines, 'stealers lay in piles of dead, broken by the occasion armored form of a Space Marine.

It filled his heart with duty and revulsion in equal measure.

"Follow me!" the Storm Trooper Captain shouted, surging through the blood red water, followed closely by a sixty screaming Storm Troopers. Koyl used his armored bulk to shoulder a 'stealer down and pressed his plasma pistol against the zenos twisted head and blew it apart in a flash of light. Another leapt at him and he swung his sword in an upward stroke, cutting the 'stealer in two. The shriek of hell-guns filled the sewer as the Storm Troopers counter-attacked hard in the 'stealers.

Erasmus paused for a moment and looked behind him. He could just make out the Storm Troopers as they counter-attacked. It almost cost him his life. The Broodlord swung its diamond hard claws at his midriff and he had to skip back frantically. The bloody 'nid had torn apart two of his Squad like they were children. Snarling, he raising his bolt pistol and emptied the clip at the giant 'stealer, the half-dozen round left in it detonated across its chest, the wounds leaking foul ichor. The Broodlord took a step back, but seemed no less deadly. Erasmus gripped his teeth and swung his chainsword in a brutal left cross, causing the Broodlord to jump aside and sliced at Erasmus's right shoulder-guard, ripping it off in a shower of sparks. Erasmus could feel blood oozing out of the wound. He thrust forward, aiming the sword at the Broodlord's stomach. The 'nid stepped forward, dodging the thrust and ripped his bionic arm off to the elbow. Erasmus stumbled back, the pain suppressors surging into his blood-stream could not stop the shock from hitting him. Sighing, the Sergeant dropped his pistol into the fouled water of the sewer and took a krak grenade from his belt as the Broodlord stepped towards him again, hissing in a satisfied way. Stating, matter-of-factly, "Death comes for you," Erasmus slapped the anti-armor grenade onto the Broodlord's chest, arming it with the same motion. The Sergeant then fell backwards and rolled the shattered body of one of his battle-brothers on top of him, praying that the sprit of his brother-marine would forgive him.

Koyl felt, rather than heard, the grenade go off. The 'stealers hissed and screamed and began to withdraw, not broken, but probably finding this prey to tough at the moment. A one-armed Space Marine walked up to Koyl, saluted him with his hand, saying, "Thank you, Captain. But, we need to fall back to the sewer entrance and seal it, now." The last word was said with incredible authority behind it.


End file.
